CVE-2020-11231 Explained : Impact and Mitigation

A vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon products can lead to heap corruption when specific functions are called concurrently by multiple threads.

Understanding CVE-2020-11231

This CVE involves a double free issue in GPS functions within various Qualcomm Snapdragon products.

What is CVE-2020-11231?

Two threads calling specific functions concurrently can corrupt pointers and reference counters, resulting in potential heap corruption in Snapdragon Compute, Connectivity, Consumer IOT, Industrial IOT, and Mobile products.

The Impact of CVE-2020-11231

The vulnerability has a CVSS base score of 6.7, indicating a medium severity issue with high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Technical Details of CVE-2020-11231

This section provides more technical insights into the vulnerability.

Vulnerability Description

The issue arises when two threads simultaneously call certain functions, leading to pointer and reference counter corruption and subsequent heap corruption.

Affected Systems and Versions

Products: Snapdragon Compute, Connectivity, Consumer IOT, Industrial IOT, Mobile
Versions: APQ8017, APQ8053, AQT1000, MSM8917, MSM8953, and many more

Exploitation Mechanism

The vulnerability occurs due to concurrent execution of specific functions by multiple threads, causing corruption and potential heap issues.

Mitigation and Prevention

Protecting systems from this vulnerability requires immediate actions and long-term security practices.

Immediate Steps to Take

Apply patches and updates provided by Qualcomm promptly
Monitor for any unusual system behavior that might indicate exploitation

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update software and firmware to mitigate known vulnerabilities
Implement secure coding practices to prevent similar issues in the future

Patching and Updates

Qualcomm has released patches addressing this vulnerability
Ensure all affected systems are updated with the latest security fixes